Man convicted of bombing Israeli bus loses US citizenship

LOS ANGELES — A Southern California man who was imprisoned in Israel for trying to bomb a bus has been sentenced in the U.S. for lying to immigration authorities when he became a citizen.

Fifty-one-year-old Vallmoe Shqaire of Downey was sentenced to nine months in federal prison Friday for unlawfully procuring U.S. citizenship in 2008. He also was stripped of his citizenship and will be deported to Jordan.

Shqaire spent four years in prison for helping in the 1988 attempted roadside bombing of a bus. The pipe bomb exploded but nobody was hurt. At that time, Shqaire had ties to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was then considered a terrorist organization by the U.S.

Shqaire pleaded guilty in January to concealing the bombing conviction and PLO ties on his citizenship application.